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Ed Arnold - Keyboard

Ed is our keyboard player, hailing from Endwell, NY. He has decades of experience in styles ranging from classical to big band to pop/rock. Notable gigs in the past include being a member of the Westchester County Jazz Band, sitting in the Northeast Navy Show Band, and as a performer playing resorts in the Catskills. Cool but enthusiastic, just watching Ed's high energy as he plays is a show in itself! 

In his other life, Ed is a software engineer for the IBM Corporation.

Don Gray - Bass

Don Gray, bass guitarist for Black Diamond Express, was born and raised in Hopewell Township – a suburb of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. At an early age, Don sang in the Aliquippa Methodist Church choir and became interested in music. At elementary school, Don joined both the school chorus and the school band - as a saxophonist. Don was a Hopewell School band member from 5th grade until high school graduation.

Probably as a result of church choir and having an organ in the household, Don became interested in organ and piano at around 12 years of age. He began taking lessons from Bobby Vallecorsa who was organist for the Jaggerz and other Pittsburgh rock and jazz bands. Through his relationship with Bobby, Don became acquainted with local and nationally known musicians and that exposure initiated a desire to form a rock band. After playing with a number of young bands, Don was a founding member of the rock band Onyx as keyboardist and back-up vocalist.

Onyx began playing local establishments when Don was 14 and the band continued for nearly eight years performing rock covers and originals in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and New York. Performing live music spurred an interest in sound engineering and electronics and led to opportunities mixing sound for both local and nationally known acts at various locations around Pittsburgh. Onyx was working on its first record deal when it disbanded and members moved on to either national touring acts or college. At that time, Don moved to University Park and focused on completing his Chemical Engineering degree at Pennsylvania State University.

After graduating Penn State, Don moved to Towanda Pennsylvania and accepted employment as a research engineer with E.I. DuPont de Nemours. He continues his long association with DuPont in various engineering and research roles. Towanda and the surrounding area was, and still is, rich with high-caliber musicians offering Don opportunities to perform with a number of local rock bands including “Bob Goes to the Store”, “Mother Funk”, “Wild Bird Food”, and more recently “Black Diamond Express”. Don built a small home studio and a number of local musician’s have recorded original music with him. He’s also recorded and mixed a number of speaking and vocal auditions for local high school students.

The opportunity to join Black Diamond Express was a result of his daughter Burgandy’s friendship with the daughter of another band member. Though the opening was for a bass guitarist, and Don’s focus to that point had mainly been as a keyboardist, Don was welcomed into the band and played his first gig with Black Diamond Express as a bass player less than three months after meeting the band members. Don’s interest in bass guitar has been passionate since then and he has enjoyed transitioning to bassist for Black Diamond Express. “Probably the main goal of Black Diamond Express is to provide the live classic rock music that both young - and bit older- still love to listen and dance to… As part of the rhythm section, Dan (Speck, BDE drummer) and I seek to provide that special groove that makes the audience want to get up and dance…or at least tap their foot along with our beat. If we can provide a little bit of relief to all the stresses in life and get to experience our audience having a good time, well…, that’s what playing this music is all about to me.”
 

Rod Patt - Guitar, Vocals

Rod has played guitar for 40 years and has been in several bands since the early 70s. While in high school, he performed on guitar in the musicals and stage band. He attended Mansfield State College from 1977 to 1981 and majored in orchestra instruments as well as performing with the jazz band, "The Mansfieldians", and in several musicals on guitar. During College, he joined a band called "Chapter Six" which did a lot of "Chicago" arrangements as well as classic rock and disco. They performed in the Binghamton tri-cities area as well as Williamsport and also performed mini-concerts at local colleges. 

After college, Rod worked as a music teacher at a Catholic school while performing in the evening with musicians from Las Vegas. They were the backup band for Williamsport's beauty pageant called "Put your Fanny in the Susquehanna". Later, they also did telethons.

Rod also got involved in documentaries at the Scranton TV station, playing background music. At the same time, he got involved with a classic rock band called "Steradian" which performed in local clubs in Towanda, Sullivan County, and Elmira. During the summer months, he helped produce music for various musicals with the Wyalusing Swing Choir and performed in local community musicals. 

While employed at the Athens School district, Rod worked with the Athens Orchestra from middle school to high school over a span of ten years. Today, he works with students from Kindergarten to fifth grade in general music and band. Besides working with "Black Diamond Express" and being one of the co-founders, Rod is usually found during the summer performing guitar in the high school musicals and in a local jazz band comprised of music teachers from the surrounding school districts.